Foam Processes: An Assessment of Their Potential in North Sea Reservoirs Based on a Critical Evaluation of Current Field Experience

Abstract

This paper vies pfepared for preeentatiin at the SPE/lME NmIh Sympoaum on lmProvwJ OilReUIVWY held in Tul~, oklah~a, U.S.A., 17-~A@ 1T his peper was eekcted for Pmsentetion by en SPE Program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the euthorts). Contents of the paper, ee presented, have not been reviewed by tfw Socii of Petroleum Engineere end are subject to correction by the author(s). The materiel, as preeented, does nOt n eceswiiy reflect anY P@tin of the society of Petroleum Engitwers, M offkwe, of member% Papem prmemfed et SPE meetlnge em subject to publication review by Edltofiel Commhtees of the Scciety of Petmfeum EngineW8. Permission 10copy is restrictedto en abstract of not mcfe than 300 words, IllustretiormITMYnc4be copkd. The atmtmcl shoutdcontain ccmspkucus acknowledgment of wfmre end by whom the paper is presented. Write Lbr.srian, SF'E. P.O. Box -, Rich-d-m~7~1 U.S.A., Telex 16SS4S SPEUT.

Review of surfactant-assisted chemical enhanced oil recovery for carbonate reservoirs: challenges and future perspectives

“…Though the microscopic sweep efficiency of CO 2 is quite high, its viscosity (* 0.01 cP) is much lower than both water (* 1.0 cP) and most of the crude oils (0.6-10 cP for conventional oils) which leads to many conformance and mobility concerns and instability in the displacement front. Problems of poor volumetric sweep efficiency, gas channeling through high-permeability streaks, and gravity override are frequent (Hanssen et al 1994). One of the strategies to meet these challenges is to utilize foam, a dispersion of gas in a continuous liquid that lowers the mobility ratio.…”

Microfluidic Study of Foams Flow for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)

“…They are widely used in several applications. Understanding and control of foam flow are issues for numerous processes and have been the subject of a lot of studies in EOR context [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. In the framework of porous media, the foam's definition is more ambiguous as foam is composed mainly of thin liquid films known as lamellae.…”

Experimental Study of Foam Flow in Fractured Oil-Wet Limestone for Enhanced Oil Recovery

“…Foam has the potential to increase oil recovery by promoting improved areal sweep, better vertical sweep (less gravity override), less viscous fingering, and diversion of gas away from higherpermeability or previously swept layers (Bernard and Holm 1964;Holm 1968;Hanssen et al 1994;Schramm 1994;Rossen 1996). Diversion of gas into lower-permeability layers using foams has previously been reported [see, for example, Casteel and Djabbarah (1988), Llave et al (1990), Zerhboub et al (1994), and Nguyen et al (2003)].…”